7 Ways to Wow Prospects on Social Media

Social Media Ratings & Reviews Success [Research]

Social media ratings and reviews from customers are a critical element of every customer’s purchase process and play an important role in your social media success.

No matter how nervous your senior management is about revealing customer feedback, if you don’t provide it on your website and social media profiles, prospects will seek it out elsewhere on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor as well as your competitors’ websites.

Existing reviews sway customer ratings. The Social Influence Bias research found that the first person to view a randomly positive comment was 32% more likely to give it a positive rating than if there was no rating.

Positive reviews influenced prospects more than negative reviews. Social Influence Bias findings revealed an asymmetry in social influence. Respondents were more swayed by previous positive responses yielding a 25% increase in the final rating score. By contrast, people either personally corrected for negative input or added information to counter the negative review. As a result random negative votes didn’t have an impact on a comment’s final rating because positive and negative activities cancelled each other out long term.

When it comes to ratings and reviews, the great silent majority of lurkers doesn’t act. About 9% will do something easy such as a rating or a like and about 1% will write a review.

7 Ways to wow prospects by improving brand or products ratings and reviews

To wow prospects provide great customer experiences. On social media, the goal isn’t to game the system but rather to encourage interaction that enables you to convert potential customers. Here are 7 actionable marketing tips to help you improve your social media ratings.

Respond to issues quickly and sincerely. The best time to act is while the prospect is on your site or in your establishment. Think win-win. Engage with all of the customers who comment, not just the negative ones. Skip the corporate-speak and be human, not defensive. Where appropriate, make good beyond a “We hope you’ll come back.” Offer a refund or replacement where appropriate. Do right by upset customers to convert them into evangelists. Know that they’ll tell everyone about your failures even if they don’t post it on a social media platform.

Reach out to your biggest fans. Syncapse research revealed that raving fans contribute to persuading prospects to purchase. Leverage the power of your fans. Give them special opportunities to test your new products and/or get special access.

Nudge customers to rate your products. This is particularly important for new products and locations since it’s easier to gather additional ratings once customers have commented. Experiential brands tend to do a better job of this than other businesses. Therefore use the power of each customer touch point such as customer receipts, comment cards, bulletin boards and handouts. Here are examples of how real life merchants and marketers encourage ratings and reviews on different platforms. Don’t overlook traditional formats such as guest books and signage.

Make connecting on social media easy. When a customer has a great experience with your brand, product and/or store, help them to share it. Go beyond asking for reviews. Provide customers with the necessary tools. While on vacation in Mexico, I took a great local adventure tour. At the end of the tour you could select photos taken of you and burned them to a CD. As long as the tour company had the computer there, they should have provided a means to collect reviews and record comments on the spot.

Follow up with customers regarding purchases. Take a page from Amazon’s playbook. Send customers a post-purchase email to gather reviews. Amazon has a long tradition of requesting customer feedback and is an online resource that shoppers turn to for customer responses. If your firm is new, you need to find another way to build customer equity such as offering an incentive.

Don’t run from bad reviews. As the research shows, prospects have built-in ways to assess reviews. A bad review from one customer can be a great reason to use your product or service for another. For example, an older couple complaining about your loud bar that stays open until 4 am can be a selling point to a twenty-something. Another example: the Hans Brinker Hotel in Amsterdam turned its negative reviews into a badge of glory for students seeking cheap sleeps.

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Heidi,
As en Elite Yelper I agree with this article completely. I have managed to get other Elite yelpers to try a new restaurant in town ONLY by my positive review of a new establishment AND stunning photos. Elite Yelpers are business evangelists if you treat us right!! My friend also owns a cake business in town and the positive reviews are great from Google, tripadvisor, and Facebook BUT the negative ones can help highlight a weakness your business has OR a weakness your contracts may have with prospective new bridal customers. Thank you for sharing this!!

heidicohen

Christine,

Thank you for providing your special perspective regarding reviews.

As you point out, ratings and reviews particularly those on Yelp are important for small businesses.